metronomes....

i've been practicing some scale patterns and i think i've actually improving but i really want to know how to use the metronome...can anyone help me???

The first thing you need to know is the duration of the notes , you got full notes(dont know the right name?) that last 4counts , half notes (1/2)that last 2 counts , fourth notes(1/4) that last 1 count , 8th notes that last a half count and 16th notes that last 1/4 of a count

so for example when you want to play a piece in 4/4 you know there are 4 beats per bar , so when you gotta play all 16th notes for example you know you have to play 4notes per beat , you always have a fourth note a beat , so if you play it all in 8th notes you have two notes a beat because 2 x 1/8th notes is 1 1/4 note ...

i don't know if that's understandable:s
but to answer only your question: you can choose the note duration for the scale pattern yourself, some possibilities:
1. play it with fourth notes : One note per beat
2. Play it with 8th notes: two notes per beat
3. play it with triplets: three notes per beat
4. play it with 16th notes: 4 notes per beat
...

for scale patterns i would advise you to do it with 16th notes, if you have three notes per string patterns you could use triplets :)

hope you understand one word from this mess and good luck:D

i am rally confused about what you said...but i'll try i..thanx....!!!

i'll try to explain again with some examples

ex1: are 1/4th notes they last for one beat of the metronome so to play this you should just play one note each note

ex2(starts at bar6 , oops): now this are 1/8th notes , every beat lasts for 1/4th note so now two 1/8th notes make up one 1/4th note, so in this example you would play two notes each beat.

ex3: now these are 1/16th notes , now we want 1/4th note each beat again so now 4 x 1/16th notes make 1/4th note again , so in this example you should play 4 notes each beat of the metronome

ex4: these are called three triplet 8th notes each one last 2/3 of a normal 8th note , so here there are trhee to make up 1/4th note, so here play 3 notes each beat, the last note is a dotted half note, so 1/2th note + 1/4th note so this last note lasts for 3 beats of the metronome .

well this works only if you're playing in 2/4,3/4,5/4 , etc..
well almost all songs are in one of these so no problem :)

for practicing scales i would advise to use 16th notes (4 a beat) and start slow...

hope you understand now?:p
otherwise i'll do another try:D

Excellent explanation i'd say. :)